Hub Kockelkorn, Museon

• About the meSch project

• 2 meSch applications

– A standalone application

– An application fully integrated in an exhibition

• meSch and DiY

• Physical interaction with objects and spaces to foster visitors’ engagement with cultural heritage

• Personalisation of content in context to provide visitors with unique experiences onsite and online

• Easy-to-use technology to support cultural heritage professionals to adopt a Do-It-Yourself approach

• Real objects Protected against touching

• Added value Not just information that also could be printed

• Quick to produce

Superb bird-of-paradise Lophorina superba (Pennant, 1781). Papua, Indonesia

Chinese women’s shoes, c. 1900

The species has an unusually low population of females, and competition amongst males for mates is intensely fierce. The average female rejects 15-20 potential suitors before consenting to mate.

For centuries Chinese men considered tiny bound feet as sexy. In China tiny women’s feet were a status symbol. But the women involved suffered pain and disability. They could only hobble around and certainly not work.

My paradise in the museum’s storage.

Remembering my owner’s feet.

Are you competitive?

'Nǐ hǎo' (that's 'hello' in Chinese)! We're more fun to look at than wear. Have you got any clothes like that?

• Wrong location • Current status not visible • Little user generated contents

• PR tool • Tool to involve the audience deeper with objects • Help with exhibition preparation?

• Collections: culture, nature and science • Regular target audience: families and schools • Over 200.000 visitors • Changing focus:

– Connection with The Hague as city of peace and justice

– Global challenges and UN sustainable development goals as guidance for our programmes

• April 9th – November 1st

• Individual visitors: adults

• Groups: special lessons for primary & secondary education

• Connecting past and present Connecting war with peace

• Connecting inside and outside Connection the exhibition with the city

• Fully integrated Throughout the whole exhibition

• Possible to visit the exhibition without meSch technology

• meSch as additional layer Personal, evocative. Not about facts

• Connected to real objects No standalone interactives

• Choice between three different perspectives

– Civilian

– Official

– German

• Based on historical resources Archives, newspapers, oral history

• Pushing a button?

• Using a smart card, barcode etc.?

• Or …

• Contribute to the visitor experience

• More immersive experience by choosing a perspective before the visit

• Each replica should represent a perspective

• It should be easy and cheap to reproduce

• Providing information about the original objects and the replicas

• Explaining the different perspectives

• Explaining how to use the replicas

Assumptions

• Loss of smart replicas

• Not aiming at quick visitors

Observations

• You can trust your public

• They want to know what they are missing

Starting point

• Choice of perspective as a discovery

Starting point

• Choice of perspective as a discovery

Observations

• Visitors do not take time to discover

• Be explicit as possible

• But if people never experienced technology before…

– Low tech vs high tech / handling the replica

– Starting the sound clip

– Relationship sound and image

• Help your visitor as much as possible

• Drop the smart object

• Print your personal data souvenir

• Connect inside with outside

• Add your own story

• Total visitor sessions: 14,853

• Average sessions per day: 75

• Peak sessions per day: 187

• Dutch: 78% - English: 22%

• Civilian: 42 % - Official: 20 % - German: 38 %

• Average contents view per session: 48.5 %

• Exhibition appreciation: 7,7

• Use of replicas appreciation: 8,0

(100 respondents from the general Museon audience)

Preference (70 persons)

• Phone: 30

• Replica: 28

• Smart card: 12

Reject

• Phone: 39

• Replica: 10

• Smart card: 23

• Replica & card: 2

• None of them: 1

During the visit I was sharing the experience with my companions and/or other visitors?

Create, test and change and interactives

NARRATIVE Content network and its properties Semantic annotations / discourse relations

INTERACTION SCRIPT Rules for the use of content in context

84

CONTEXT Possible interaction abilities Mapping between elementary interactions and semantic dimensions

DEVICE Hardware configuration

German soldier

Civil servant

Dutch civilian

Narrative 1 Narrative 2

Narrative 3 Narrative 4

Narrative 5 Narrative 6

• First release of the system for external beta-users

• Widening the range of examples

• Starting a community of practice

• Any interest? Get in touch!

The project (2013-2017) receives funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme ‘ICT for access to cultural resources’ (ICT Call 9: FP7-ICT-2011-9) under the Grant Agreement 600851.